To improve the design or quality of automotive decoration or the like, many different decorated parts for a vehicle (i.e. console box, instrument panel, arm-rest or the like) are practically used, and such decoration is added to the surface of a resin compact. As a method for enhancing the decoration of decorated parts, the hydraulic-transfer method is generally used. The hydraulic-transfer method is a technique in which a special film with some predetermined design (i.e. a wood-grain pattern, a geometric pattern or the like) is floated on the water surface to transfer the designs to the surface of the resin compact by water pressure. This technique makes it possible to print the designs three-dimensionally onto the surface of the part.
As a decorative method other than the hydraulic-transfer method, the laser-printing method is known. Laser printing is a decorative method in which a laser is irradiated onto the surface of a part. The surface of the part then changes (i.e. curved, burned or the like) by the heat of the laser so as to print the designs on the surface. As such, this decorative method makes it possible to print the designs at a low cost compared to the hydraulic-transfer method.
Patent Document 1 or the like shows a technology for providing the printing of characters onto the surface of a part by irradiating laser onto that surface. This technology involves an aluminum metallic powder being mixed with a coating material that is then coated onto the surface of the part. Then, in heating the metallic powder efficiently by laser-irradiation, the coating material is burned and removed.